


Under the Alolan Sun

by FlangstPrince



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Good Parent Kukui-hakase | Professor Kukui, Platonic Cuddling, Satoshi has TRAUMA, Time for a family fluff fic!!!, Vomiting, acknowledge it, also his name is satoshi but he goes by ash on his journeys cause its easier for people to say, clemont and serena are really only in video calls or memories, pikachu is an emotional support pokemon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2020-11-08 18:24:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20840009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlangstPrince/pseuds/FlangstPrince
Summary: Satoshi, or well, Ash has some problems, if only he'd let himself be vulnerable enough to try to get through them. He plans on keeping it all inside, so he can be happy so he can stay and not be a burden in Alola. However, Professor Kukui has other plans that involve talking about feelings. Sato's got his work cut out for him, Pikachu just wants him to take it easy, and Kukui wants his kid to talk to him when hes got a problem. (Coming off hiatus soon)





	1. Don't You Ever Want to Talk About Your Feelings?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Satoshi has been holding stuff in for a while, it was only a matter of time before the balloon burst.

_Professor Kukui, _

_ I’d like to thank you for allowing my son to stay with you while he attends the pokemon school. I know this will be a fantastic opportunity for him and I think it will be a lot of fun. _

_ However, there are a few things about my boy that I should have addressed with you sooner, but I didn’t want to say it in front of _ <strike>_ Satoshi _</strike> _ Ash. I just couldn’t find a moment to say it. _

_ My son was always a happy and outgoing boy but something has been very off lately. Its like hes built a wall around himself. Once he returned home from his journey in Kalos, something seemed off. No matter what I would do he was quiet and distant. Usually once a journey ended he would just keep going and move onto the next region and the next Pokemon league. _

_ But this time he didn’t leave the house. _

_ Actually he hardly left his bed. _

_ There were days where pikachu would have to come downstairs to get his food, and even then most meals ended up getting cold. _

_ He wouldn’t even agree to go see all his pokemon waiting to see him at professor Oaks, he always would visit them once he returned, but this time was different. I saw him drop his three flying Pokemon off at the Professors before going right home to his bed. _

_ He wouldn’t even go outside when his old friends would visit, he would say he wasn’t feeling well and hole himself back up in his room. _

_ Although he has been all smiles this entire vacation, I am not sure how long it will last. If he becomes too much of a handful feel free to send him back on home. I don’t expect you to have to deal with whatever’s going on if it is too much, I am his mother after all. _

_ Thanks again, _

_ Hanako (Delia) _

Kukui eyed the letter Delia had quickly scrawled on a napkin in interest. It had been a few days since he had arrived. So far, Ash hadn’t displayed any of that kind of behavior. Though he supposed it was something to keep an eye on, so far he had gone over some basic house rules with the Kantonian boy and his pikachu and he agreed to help out with chores around the house and such. He had been nothing but respectful, though he did see a little tense.

He always ate every last bite of the meals prepared for him and seemed to enjoy it greatly. Rockruff seemed to be ecstatic about the new guest, and Ash seemed to greatly enjoy his company as well.

“Hey!” a voice startled Kukui out of his thoughts. Rotom did a quick spin while doing a calculation. “My data shows this is incorrect! Turtwig cannot learn the move dig!”

Ash chuckled a bit, “It’s just a tv show rotom, its fiction.”

“Well it could be at least a bit more realistic, don’t want trainers to get any misconceptions about the capabilities of their turtwig.” Rotom crossed his arms.

“I dunno, I actually think that any pokemon can learn a move they don’t usually learn if they put their mind to it. My bulbasaur actually learned how to use dig.”

Rotom seemed to almost glitch, “Impossible!”

“But it is!” Ash grinned, “She learned it to save some other Pokemon during a land dispute, she’s an extraordinary pokemon.”

“I won’t believe it until I see it!” Rotom huffed.

“Alright then, Guess I’ll just have to show you if you ever visit Kanto with me.” the boy shrugged.

Ash was currently sitting on the couch, quietly petting pikachu and watching the television while Rowlet napped above them, with Rotom viewing the show in interest.

Kukui looked down at his feet to find Rockruff papping his leg with his paw, begging for the still unfinished meal he was preparing. “Not yet Rockruff.” he sighed, petting the pokemon on the head before returning to his vegetables.

Once the meal was finally done, he sat down with the boy and his pokemon and ate. The pokemon ate like they were as hungry as ever. Ash seemed happy to eat the meal as well.

Once finished, he collected all the pokemon’s bowls on top of his, placed them in the sink, thanked Kukui for the meal and climbed up into the loft area he’d been given. Rotom and Pikachu followed, Rowlet remained snoozing on the couch.

The professor looked at the time, it was a bit early to head to bed… he heard the springs of the bed creaking as the boy laid down.

He looked up towards the loft, “Hey Ash, it’s only Eight pm. That's a bit early for a fourteen year old to go to bed.” he had a light chuckle in his voice, “Want to come down and watch a movie or play a board game?”

Brown eyes gazed down from the loft area, “Oh no, I’m okay! Besides, you probably have professor things to do, or stuff to prepare for class tomorrow. I wouldn’t want to overstep my boundaries…”

Kukui paused, a bit puzzled by Ash’s words, “Of course not Ash! Why would you be overstepping any boundaries by playing a game I invited you to join?” he stood and walked towards a cabinet, opening it to reveal many board games, “Besides I have my lesson plans ready months in advance and I don’t really work in the evenings unless its pokemon professor things rather than school work.”

The boy frowned and visibly swallowed, “Um… Okay.” He climbed down the ladder, pikachu on his shoulder. He had changed into his bed shirt, one that he insisted that Kukui didn’t have to buy for him. Though the professor insisted, especially since Ash only had a few days worth of clothes with him.

He walked over to the couch and at down, looking much more tense than before.

The professor pulled out a long rectangular box, “How about some Jenga?”

“Alright.” a curt nod accompanied by a rapidly shaking leg.

Kukui gave him a warm smile and set up the tower, pikachu joined the game too, while rockruff settled on watching and rotom insisted on recording the event.

A block was carefully pulled out of the tower and placed on top, pikachu followed Kukui’s example, carefully pulling out a different one and placing it atop as well, standing on his toes to reach well enough.

“Pika!” the electric mouse cheered at his victory before turning towards his trainer.

“R-right.” Ash picked a block with a slightly shaky hand, slowly sliding it out and placing it on top. He’d let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding as the tower only shook a bit but didn’t fall to the ground.

Kukui went once more, then pikachu. Then it was Ash once more. He inhaled sharply, slowly taking the block, and placing it atop, seeming far too relieved that the tower didn’t collapse.

The cycle continued, Kukui, pikachu, and a very tense Ash.

Until it all came crashing down. Ash seemed to be frozen at first, just gazing at the destroyed tower. But then suddenly curtly stood up, “Okay game over goodnight.” he scaled the ladder to the loft in record time.

Kukui looked at the time, though it was only eight forty, he supposed he should get ready for bed himself. His chest had a strange anxious feeling in it as he cleaned up the game and put it away, before retiring to his own bedroom.

* * *

It was around midnight when he had heard hacking down the hallway. He yawned and slid out of bed, assuming rockruff had gone and eaten something it wasn’t supposed to again. His bare feet padded out into the hallway as he followed the sounds to the bathroom.

He blinked some more sleep out of his eyes, that was strange, how did rockruff get in there? He was so sure he’d closed the door before he’d retired for the night.

He went to turn the knob but froze as he heard a voice.

“Pikachu…”  
  
“Pika…”

“I’m -kay, promiss-”

“Pikapi!”

At the pokemon’s concerned shout, Kukui turned the doorknob and threw the door open. Ash was sitting on his knees, hunched to the ground. His eyes were glazed over with some sort of haze. The room reeked of vomit, it dripped a bit from his mouth as he coughed and hacked.

“Ash?”

The boy suddenly jerked, just then noticing the professor, his eyes filled with tears, he began to spurt out words, _ “Yuru-yurushite…” _the tears built up in his eyes flowed down his cheeks.

The professor pondered the word for a moment, pulling up his kantonese that he’d learned ages ago. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I’m so terrible… I-I I’m making a mess of it all, I tried, I tried to be happy I really did I-I.” his breath caught a he puked once more in the toilet. He let out a broken sob. He let out a few more cries before suddenly standing up and using what seemed to be all he had to run out of the bathroom and straight towards the front door.

Kukui followed quickly, “H-hey! Where are you going!?”

“I’m sorry! I’ll go sleep outside, I’m not a good housemate sir.” he quickly explained, opening the screen door.

“Pikapi!”

“Ash! You can’t just go sleep outside, its cold out.” Kukui caught up with him.

“I’ve done it before! Almost every day in my last journey! I’m o-okay!” he went to open the door but Kukui blocked the way.

“No. You are not. Why are you apologizing? Why do you feel like you have sleep outside?”

Ash hugged himself a bit, “I-I told you sir, I’m disgusting and terrible and I’m a bad-”  
  


“Hey, no you’re not. You aren’t bad in any way shape or form. You were sick, that doesn’t make you disgusting. It happens.”

“Not every night…” Ash hiccuped.

“...”

“...”

“Ash, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I knew you’d think I was disgusting.” tears continued to flow.

  
Kukui took a breath, “Satoshi, hey.” he placed a sturdy hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I don’t think that at all. Come on,” he stood, “Lets get you out of that shirt.”

Satoshi sniffled, wiping at his brown eyes. “M’ sorry I ruined it…” Kukui walked him to the laundry room.

“You didn’t ruin anything bud.” he took the shirt from the boy who suddenly seemed to be much smaller than he usually carried himself. The stained shirt was tossed in the wash and the boy was given one of kukui’s old bed shirts for the time being.

Satoshi muttered a small _ “Arigato.” _

_ “Kinishinaide.” _Kukui patted him on the head as he lead the boy out into the living room. He motioned for him to sit down beside him. Pikachu pulled a blanket over to his trainer as Satoshi sat down, hugging his knees to his chest.

Kukui put on a simple comedy show, though neither of them really paid much attention to it.

“Satoshi, how long has this been going on?”  
  


“Since I got to Alola.”

Kukui perked up, “Have you been sick this whole time?”  
  


“Sorta.. ‘Ts’not contagious though…” he pet pikachu’s head. “I had trouble eating back home, and I wanted to seem like I was okay. And I didn’t wanna be rude so I just ate it all, though the amount of food in even just normal meals have been making me sick, every night.” he hugged pikachu close, “I saw the letter my mom wrote… I want to stay here, so I have to make myself okay. Please professor, I don’t want you to get rid of me, I-I’ll try harder to be better! I’ll get better, I promise! I-”

“Satoshi! Hey,” Kukui placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder once more.

“Pikapi.” Pikachu nuzzled into his trainers chest.

“It’s okay, I’m not gonna send you away. You don’t deserve to be sent away buddy…” he sighed, “Can you tell me something you can see?”

“I see, your glasses.”

“Good job bud.” he smiled warmly, “How about something you can hear?”

  
“The TV.”

  
  
“Nice job Satoshi. Now how about something you can feel?”

Satoshi scritched pikachu under his chin, “Pikachu…”

  
  
“How does pikachu feel?” The professor asked.

“Soft, n’ warm.” he sniffled a bit.

“Chuuu.” Pikachu nuzzled impossibly closer to his best friend. Satoshi’s chest still had trouble settling as he breathed, it would hitch as he exhaled.

“Are you okay with a hug?” Kukui asked, holding open his arms.

“I- I’d actually really like that.” he let himself melt into the embrace as the sniffling died down.

Kukui rubbed the boy’s back as he quieted down. Once his breathing had evened out, he looked up at Kukui, ‘You know, you don’t have to call me Satoshi… I use Ash to make it easier for people from other places…”  
  
“Well I enjoy the name Satoshi, it really suits you Sato.” he ruffled up the boy’s already messy hair.

“Okay, thank you professor, I really do like my name, but you can call me Ash around my friends…”

Kukui chuckled, “Can do. Also just call me Kukui, being called ‘Sir’ in my own home feels a bit strange.” he offered a grin.

“Alright.” Satoshi seemed the most relaxed Kukui had ever seen him, a sort of relief in his eyes that were getting droopy with the need for slumber.

“Okay, I think it’s time for bed.” the professor smiled.

“Mmnmph.” Sato made a tired noise as he pulled out of the embrace, picking up pikachu.

He walked back over to the loft, pikachu on his shoulder. “Hey, Sato.”

“Yeah?” the trainer turned back to Kukui, rubbing his tired eyes. 

“Let me know the next time something’s wrong, I’m happy to help.”

“Thank you Kukui.”

“Of course.” he stood and turned off the tv, ready to get back to bed himself.

He heard the bed from the loft creaking as he closed his door, he sighed, looking at the clock. Two am. He’d have to cancel class tomorrow, for both he and Satoshi’s sake.

The moonlight filtered through the window and shined on his bed. His head stirred with thoughts but he knew one thing for certain.

He wouldn’t leave that boy alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! It makes me happy that so many people enjoy my story!


	2. Panic! At the Sato!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fucked up a perfectly good kid is what you did Lysandre. Look at him! He's got Anxiety!!!

Satoshi seemed to have curled in on himself as he, Kukui, and Sophocles walked to dinner.

God, somehow he’d forgotten how bad the mess he’d made was. He hoped the professor wasn’t too mad at him. He scratched at his arm, he hoped that the professor wouldn't embarrass him by bringing it up in front of Sophocles… why else would he offer to bring him out to eat? That was something his mom would do sometimes, right in front of his friends. 

The chilly alolan evening air blew through his black hair as he could feel rowlet’s snoozing in his backpack. He found himself hugging pikachu to his chest with a bit of anxiety as the professor made simple small talk with his classmate.

The walk to the restaurant seemed to take hours and only a few minutes, somehow at the same time. 

Upon entering, Mallow’s father waved to them in a friendly manner, inviting the three to sit down. It wasn’t long before Mallow arrived with menus and a few new drinks on the menu. “On the house!” she chirped.

As she dashed off to fill other tables orders, Kukui and Sophocles laughed about something Satoshi didn’t quite catch. Arceus he sure was anxious.

“What do you think Ash?” Sophocles was suddenly turned towards him, togedemaru chirping about whatever they had been talking about.

“Uh, s-sure!” Ash laughed a bit nervously.

“About what?” Sophocles raised a confused eyebrow.

Ash forced a smile and a little laugh out, “Haha! S-sorry! What were you asking about?”

“Whether we should get the Oran Berry, or the Lum Berry surprise for dessert.” Kukui offered with a light grin.

“Oh! That! Yea! I thought you meant the uh other thing…”

“What?-”

“I’d say Lum Berry sounds good to me! Rowlets favorite! Mine too heh!”

A smile spread across Sophocles’ face. “Oh, Alright! Cool!”

“So how was your day boys? Seems to me there is quite a story to tell.” he turned to Ash and the boy tensed.

“It was fun in a weird way, but still fun! We got a bit stressed in the mall but we worked together and pulled through!” Sophocles excitedly rattled off as togedemaru squeaked with joy. 

“Pikachu! Pika!” Satoshi looked down to see his Pokémon cooing at him from his lap. In response he placed his hand atop the yellow mouse’s head and scritched the fur atop it. “Chyaaa!” Pikachu’s ears drooped down as he relaxed in Sato’s lap.

The boy allowed himself to chill a little too. The pokemon sitting in his lap was grounding enough to help him through the meal despite his anxieties.

“Oh wonderful!” Kukui responded with a lighthearted chuckle still in his voice. 

It wasn’t long before Mallow returned to take their orders. Sophocles ordered a bigger looking meal for he and togedemaru, and Kukui ordered a meal that seemed modest, but still filling. 

Satoshi found himself silent, what could he get?

“Ash.” Satoshi jumped at Kukui’s voice, “Are you okay?”

  
  
“Y-yea! Yup! All good! I’ll have uh this!” he pointed to something random on the menu and passed it back to Mallow.

“Oh! Alright! Coming right up!” she grinned at her friends and teacher before dashing off again to fill some more orders, bounsweet by her side. Ash bit his cheek and placed a hand on Rowlets head. 

“Don’t even think about it.”

Rowlets feathers ruffled as he accepted that he wouldn’t be following the sweet scent. 

Soon the meals were delivered and eaten, though Satoshi found himself taking most of it home. The portion sizes were a bit big for his still delicate stomach.

They walked Sophocles home but as they waved goodbye to the boy, a new anxiety bubbled in his chest.

The walk back to Kukuis was silent. Satoshi could only imagine subdued anger. He had trashed the professor's home after all…

He waited, and waited, and waited… it didn’t happen though.

Step by step, minute by minute the had walked until the door to the house was swung open.

“Oh! Right!” Kukui chuckled. “I’d completely forgotten what a mess everything was!” His hand reached back to rub his neck. 

Sato blinked. The professor sounded oddly casual.

“Well then we’d better get to work huh?” he winked at the boy, walking into a small closet off of the kitchen. He pulled out a mop, “You already cleaned up a lot of em but there’s still a ways to go. How about we work together to deal with those suds in the laundry room?”

“I, uh… Okay.” Satoshi’s voice was small.

A slight frown fell upon Kukui’s face, “Are you okay Satoshi?” he turned towards the boy.

“I’m okay, just I, I am confused…”

“What about?” Kukui raised an eyebrow.

“I literally…” he looked around him, “TRASHED YOUR HOUSE. How are you not mad at me? I was scared you were gonna embarrass me in front of Sophocles at dinner…”

“Why would I do that?” he genuinely asked.

“Well, once when I was nine, my mom left me home alone to do some chores while she was out for the day and I had completely destroyed her garden. She was super passive aggressive all day but then, later that day she lashed out on me in front of my friend Gary...” he swallowed, “She was having a stressful day and I don’t think it was her plan to lash out then but she was pretty upset with me… though it wasn’t the first time she’d done it.”

Kukui looked concerned, “Did she apologize later?”

“Yea, but it still felt like a punishment in the end…” Pikachu hugged his trainer’s leg.

“Sato, I would never embarrass you like that, and I’m not mad at you.” a grin grew on his lips, “Really I find it kind of funny how much damage you managed to do, didn’t you ever do laundry before?”

“Nope,” Satoshi smiled a bit, “I would always watch my mom but never did it myself. Not to mention on journeys I would be in charge of drying the laundry on a clothesline. Not washing it. And I have never cooked either, I always had someone else in my group that could cook so they would always do the cooking.” he shrugged.

“Well that all makes sense now,” Kukui laughed, “I have made similar mistakes before. The first time I did the dishes with a dishwasher, I poured a bunch of dish soap in the compartment. I left to let it wash, and when I came back the entire kitchen was overwhelmed with suds!” he chuckled, “Kahuna Hala had me spend the rest of the day cleaning it up.”

Satoshi chuckled as the mop was handed to him, “Don’t worry, I’ll help you out though.”

After much scrubbing and mopping from the efforts of Kukui, Sato, Rotom, Rowlet, Rockruff, and Pikachu. (Though the pokemon spent more time sliding along the suds like a slip and slide.) The Room was squeaky clean.

After they had said their goodnights to each other, Satoshi laid awake in his bed, looking up to the ceiling with a perplexed expression.

“Pika?” Pikachu perked up, resting his head on his trainer’s belly, and to Satoshi’s surprise Rowlet flapped his wings as well to land on his bed frame with a coo.

“I’m okay guys.” he exhaled.

“Pikapi…” Pikachu poked him in the face.

Satoshi sighed, “It’s not that big of a deal Pikachu.”

Flapping wings were heard and bird like feet grabbed onto Satoshi’s hair, “Rrrrooo!”

“Pika!”

“Fineeeeeeee.” Sato groaned, “I’ll talk about my FEELINGS.” He sat up a bit, pulling pikachu to his lap, and coaxing Rowlet off his head. “I don’t know why my brain works like this, before my last journey, when things went wrong I would brush them off easy. I could handle any problem the world threw at me. But now…” he hung his head, “Just screwing up some damn laundry made me think the professor hated me.” he sniffed, “Something is very wrong with me and I don’t know how to fix it.”

“Pikapi, pika pichuu!” The electric type nuzzled his trainer.

“Pikachu…” Satoshi smiled a bit.

“Rrrroooooww!” Rowlet cooed, beginning to affectionately preen through his trainer’s hair.

“Thanks guys, I know, I will get better, I promise.” he yawned and stretched a bit, laying back down with pikachu settling on his chest, and Rowlet in the crook of his neck. He found rest easy with the warm pokemon beside him.

* * *

Kukui enjoyed mondays, a lot of people would scoff at the idea, but it’s true. He got to teach the kids in the class a new thing about pokemon and they would all excitedly participate. They brought up interesting viewpoints and grew in their skills and knowledge about pokemon every single day.

It warmed his heart to also see the friendships formed between all of them, though they were aged from eleven to fifteen years old, they all hung out together and considered each other friends.

Kukui looked at the clock, Satoshi was very late for class. He had waited a while to begin, but it would be lunch soon without teaching a single thing, so he figured he would begin the lesson without Satoshi. Perhaps he had gotten sidetracked by a wild pokemon, it wouldn’t be the first time. He turned his back to the class and began to write the types of pokemon on the board when the entire class gasped, Lillie exclaiming, “Oh my!”

He turned towards the class and followed their eyes to the doorway where Ash stood, breathing heavily, “I-made it!” his arms and face were covered in scratches, some had blood slowly seeping out. He rushed over to his seat and looked at the board, “Oh cool! Type advantages! Am I too late?”

Kukui looked at him ridiculously, “Class dismissed for lunch.”

Satoshi seemed to deflate at his words but nonetheless grabbed his lunch out of his backpack as the rest of the class surrounded him. However before they could get a word with him, Kukui interrupted, “Ash, buddy, let’s talk for a second in the hall.”

“Oh, okay!” he grabbed his lunch and waved goodbye to everyone as he followed the professor into the hallway. “Sorry for being so late, I know being on time is important!”

“Forget being on time Satoshi, what happened!? You are covered in scratches!” Kukui grabbed a first aid kit off from the wall and motioned for him to sit down on a bench. 

Sato complied and sat down, “Well, I met that litten again, you know the one who is always at the market with that nice lady?” he winced as Kukui cleaned up his worse cuts, “And she was really nice to me, got all close and cuddly, she even nuzzled into my hand. I figured she must have been hungry so I wanted to share a little piece of my sandwich with her and well…” he opened up his lunch, revealing the small nibble that remained of his sandwich. “I gave her an inch and she took a mile.”

Kukui snorted a bit, “Yeah that’s a common thing with that litten.” he continued to tend to Satoshi’s wounds.

“Yeah, I ended up chasing her to avenge my croquette sandwich!” he dramatically shook his fist, “It looked so yummy!”

“I’ll make you another tomorrow.” Kukui chuckled, putting away the medical materials and heading back to the classroom, Satoshi in tow. “You can have half of mine for now.”

“Thanks professor.” Satoshi chuckled, he took the offered half of the sandwich, and ran back over to talk to his friends about what had given him his scratches.

* * *

"Lit-phoo!" the red and black pokemon whacked at the obstruction around her head.   
  
  


"Don't pick at it litten! You'll mess up your bandages, that Persian really roughed you up."  
  
  
"Tehteh." the cat pokemon snorted a couple sparks.

"Pika!"

It was hard to keep from laughing, litten really did look ridiculous in the heliolisk collar.

Kukui watched as Satoshi played nice with the injured litten while he put away dinner. From the looks of it, it wasn’t very effective, but that didn’t mean Satoshi’s move had no effect at all.

He’d gotten to the point of coaxing Litten onto his lap. The cat like pokemon had even felt comfortable enough to fall asleep on his lap, unconsciously purring, lulling everyone but Rotom to sleep in a big cuddle pile around Satoshi. The outlier was still wide awake, intently watching the latest episode of Alolan Detective Laki, muting their volume so their exclamations wouldn't disturb their sleeping friend.

Eventually even Rotom had retired to their charger for the night. Kukui switched off the television, making sure not to disturb Satoshi and his new friend on his lap. Pikachu curled up at his side and rowlet snoozing on top of the couch near his head.

The next morning however had the opposite vibes of the night prior. Things were still calm but with a tone of sadness layered atop.

Satoshi had entered his room far earlier than he usually awoke, and shook Kukui awake gently. “Professor, sorry to bother you, but uh I need to tell you something about Litten. 

Kukui rubbed his eyes, "Is she hurt? Did she distrub her wounds?"  
  
  
"No, but I found out why she fought so hard over that one little berry." Kukui sat up and listened to Satoshi tell him all about how he had followed the pokemon all the way to its home, and met the stoutland who the litten stayed with.

Kukui got up and prepared for the day as Satoshi told him what he planned to do.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea.” Kukui smiled, “I won’t be able to come along but I am sure your gift will be greatly appreciated.

“Yea! Awesome!” Satoshi laughed a bit, grabbing his bag, “The market doesn’t open for a bit but I’ll go there after a quick run with my pokemon!” Pikachu pumped his fist in the air, Rowlet gave a drowsy coo, and Rotom floated behind him. “Lets go!”

Without a chance for Kukui to say anything more, the young trainer dashed out the door. There was just no stopping Satoshi.

* * *

Sato would admit that he felt sad, walking away with bags packed with berries. However there was some hope and happiness inside of him. Anela, the lady at the market had given him some lovely advice that he really took to heart.

“Pika?” pikachu hopped alongside him.

“I’ll be good buddy.” he held out his arm for pikachu to use as leverage to climb up, “I felt before like litten was sort of abandoning me, yeah.” he stopped and leaned against a brick wall that faced one of Melemele’s beaches.

“Pikapi,”  
  
“But now I know that litten does what she does because she has others to care for! She’s not abandoning me at all. Just like Marie said, it’s not my fault and its nothing that I did.” he scratched under pikachu’s chin, “Because I didn’t do anything wrong!” he offered pikachu a pinap berry, who gobbled it up in response, rowlet getting an oran berry to munch on.

“Chupika!” Pikachu shouted, swishing his tail.

Sato chuckled, grabbing his bags and almost hopping forwards, “Pikachu you validate me.”

“Pika!”

“Rroo!!”

“Yes rowlet, you too!” the pokemon snuggled into his bag with content.

As Satoshi walked home, he figured that though He may have had a full bag of berries, that doesn't mean he has an empty heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more angst and fluff this time, next time there will be a BUNCH OF FLUFF THO! Look forward to Sato and his friends on Monday! Also, I am not trashing on Delia in any way shape or form, no parents are perfect, and Delia is just not the best at handling things like what's going on with her boy.


	3. Sugar Spice and Everything Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sato, Mallow, and Lillie essentially have a play date and have fun with their friends, its a grand old fun time.

Lillie sat on her bed, kicking her feet a little bit, a shy smile tugging at her lips. Her eyes glancing here and there at the egg on the couch, moving a little bit from time to time. She was nervous about it at first but soon felt confident that all the pillows and blankets would keep the egg from crashing to the ground no matter how much it shook.

“You are doing an amazing job with the egg so far!” Ash plopped down on the bed next to the blonde girl, Mallow laying behind them reading the book Lillie had picked out earlier. Her feet hung in the air, one occasionally falling back onto the bed.

“Thank you Ash, I’m doing my best to raise the egg until it hatches all happy and healthy!” she hugged her clefairy plush to her chest.

Ash looked at the plush with interest, “Hey Lillie, you sure do have a lot of plushies.” he glanced at the shelf that held many more.

She blushed a little, “Y-yea, I guess I do.” she walked over and grabbed her eevee from her shelf, “I guess for me it was the next best thing to pokemon since I couldn’t touch them anymore… so I just kept on getting more and more of them. Though I have had this Clefairy plush since I was a baby.” She smiled a bit, petting its head. “I don’t play with them as much anymore though, I used to have all sorts of tea parties with them.”

She looked towards her friends but quickly looked away, her face flushing embarrassed. “But its stupid to even think about uh.” she hugged her plush.

“Well I think it’s a great idea!” Satoshi grinned, standing up, “How about we grab all the plushies we can find and have a giant tea party!?”

“R-really!?” Lillie was taken aback.

“Yea! It sounds like a great idea to me!” Mallow added in, closing the book on eggs.

“Oh, alright.” Lillie looked around, “Uh there should be a folding table in the closet out in the hall.”

“On it!” Ash grinned, running over to grab it.

Mallow grabbed a few more plushies, “I’ve got the party guests!” she giggled.

Lillie found her shoulders relaxing a bit as she opened up a cabinet in the corner of her room, pulling out an old looking basket. It was decorated with a lovely blue ribbon and a gemstone was atop the golden lock. She took the key which was placed right beside the basket, and opened it up.

Ash returned with the table and with Mallow’s help, got it stable and standing as Lillie placed the basket in the center of the table, carefully taking out the glassware inside. A lovely teapot was the centerpiece. Smaller teacups were visible around it and little plate with neatly painted designs were in small neat stacks as well in the corners.

“Oh wait,” Lillie pursed her lips, “I forgot all about the tea!”

“Would Hobbes make some for us?” Mallow suggested.

“Of course he would… I mean,” Lillie looked away a bit, rocking on her feet.

“Awesome!” Mallow clasped her hands together, “Let’s go then!” She grabbed Lillie’s hand and gently pulled her out into the hall, followed by Ash and every single pokemon in the room. (Aside from the egg of course.) Mallow’s eyes quickly spotted the butler. “Excuse me Hobbes!”

“Yes young Mallow?” he asked, turning his attention from his sweeping.

“We’d like you to make us some tea please.” Ash joined Mallow, leaning against the railing.

“Oh how lovely, may I ask what for?” he raised an eyebrow.

Lillie appeared, “Uh nothing too impo-”

  
  
“A tea party!” Mallow took Lillie’s hand.

A smile appeared on Hobbes’ face, “Oh! How lovely! I will prepare it right away! How does mint sound?”

A comforting hand squeezed Lillie’s, “Sounds lovely, thank you!”

* * *

Hobbes placed the teapot on the table, “Oh it’s just so lovely seeing you having tea parties again!”

Lillie blushed a little, making sure the egg was seated comfortably on her lap. 

“It’s gonna be so much fun!” Ash held his teacup with his pinkie out, Pikachu imitating him. The sight made Lillie giggle.

“She pulled a bun out of the basket Hobbes had prepared as well. “Okay then! Bon’ appetit!”

As they ate they watched all the pokemon playing outside. “They are really cute, aren’t they?” Mallow took a bit of her bun.

“Yea, they look like they're having tons of fun on the playground!” Ash watched as the wild pokemon hung on the monkey bars, and went down the slide.

“My favorite part of the playground was always the sandbox,” Mallow mused, “I would always go ‘digging for treasure’.”

“I loved the merry go round! You would get on after you picked up the momentum and go spinning! Fast like a quick attack! It’s the best kind of head rush!” Pikachu agreed with Ash’s statement, a nod and a ‘pika’.

“Well, I always loved the swings.” Lillie mused, “I would close my eyes, or just look upwards and it would feel like I was flying like a toucannon.” she smiled, a hand on the egg, “It was a lot of fun.”

“Well who says it’s gotta stop?” Ash stood, turning to Rotom, “Hey Rotom, where’s the nearest park with stuff big enough for us to play on!?”

Rotom’s face held up some data as they calculated, “Hmm well there is a park right near Professor Kukui’s house, it has equipment for children aged seven to ten, but it would fit you all.”

“You’re the best Rotom!” Mallow grinned ear to ear.

“W-wait but what about the egg?” Lillie hugged it to her chest.

Ash smiled at the image, “We can ask the Professor to egg-sit! He wouldn’t mind at all I’m sure!”

Lillie bit her lip, “Only if you are absolutely sure…”

A light hand was placed on her shoulder, “Hey, why not just try and see what he says, and if he says he can’t, then we can ask my dad! He just can’t say no to me!”

Lillie looked up at Mallow’s reassuring grin, “O-okay then, let’ try!”

Soon enough the tea was finished and the buns eaten until not even crumbs remained, (courtesy of Rowlet). Hobbes took them in the car, all the way to Kukui’s home.

Upon arrival, Ash ran up to the house and threw the door open, shouting, “Professor I’m back! Can you help us out with something?!”

Kukui let out a yelp from the basement, “Satoshi!? Why are you home so early!? I-is everything alright?”

Ash raised an eyebrow, the professor sounded a bit nervous. “I’m all good, are you alright?” his footsteps creaked as he walked down the stairs. 

_ “Kūkae!” _the professor uttered as Satoshi entered the basement.

_ “Kukai?” _Sato questioned, confused, why would the Professor say ‘Sky and Sea’ out of nowhere like that.

Kukui looked a bit frazzled, a pokeball in his hand, and his other hand behind his back.

“Professor?” 

“Yes Sato?” he used the hand with the pokeball in it to pull his lab coat tighter around him.

“Right uh, we were wondering if you could egg-sit while Lillie, Mallow, and I hang out at the park nearby?”

“Sure thing!” a drop of sweat slowly fell down his forehead. 

“Right, okay, thanks Kukui!” Sato waved, climbing back up the stairs.

Lillie and Mallow were seated in the living room, Mallow scritching Rockruff’s neck. Both seemed to be listening intently to Rotom’s explanation as to why Alolan Detective Laki was in fact the biggest masterpiece ever aired in the history of television.

Satoshi pointed towards the stairway, “He’ll be up in just a minute.”

“Great!” Lillie exclaimed, till clutching the egg gently.

“Though one thing did confuse me... “ he tapped his chin.

“What’s that?” Lillie asked.

“Well…” Satoshi crossed his arms, “When I started walking down the stairs he yelled the Kantonese word for ‘Sky and Sea’, _ Kukai, _no idea why.”

Lillie blushed and Mallow snorted. “You may have misheard that Ash.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well he probably said uh…” Lillie blushed harder, “_ Kūkae.” _

“The Alolan word for Shit.” Mallow said matter-of-factly. Satoshi almost choked on a laugh at the realization. “What was he doing down there anyhow?”

“Not sure.” Sato shrugged, “He had a pokeball in his hand and was holding something behind his back.”

“Hmm…” Lillie mused. “Maybe a surprise party?”

“Or some secret pokemon research!” Sato clenched his fists with excitement.

“Or he was just doing a hobby he doesn’t like others to see. My dad doesn’t know that I know he sneaks down into the basement to Cosplay at night.” 

“You think he cosplays?” Lillie asked.

“Maybe.” Mallow shrugged, “Who’s pokeball was it?”

“Not sure…” Satoshi trailed off, “In all honesty I haven’t seen too much of the professors pokemon other than Rockruff, and he’s wild.”

“Interesting…” Mallow thought, “Maybe it is a research thing then.”

Kukui walked up the stairs, looking much more put together. “You three said you needed and egg sitter?”

“I-if you wouldn’t mind.” Lillie stood with the egg safely nestled in her arms.

“Of course! You guys go have fun!” he offered his arms out and took the egg from Lillie.

“Thanks professor!” Satoshi called, running out the door, Mallow and Lillie in tow.

Pikachu ran ahead, knowing the route to the park well as they’d passed it often in outings and excursions. First they had to pass the Potion shop, then turn right at the end of the road.After that take a shortcut through a small forest of trees before, “There!”

Sato pointed towards an area with swings that would make them soar, a merry go round that would surely make them sick from spinning, and a big metal slide that would definitely burn them thanks to the beating alolan sun. 

Ash hopped on a swing, followed by Lillie, and Mallow next to the blonde. Ash swung his legs to get as high as possible, the wind flowing through his hair. Once high enough he let go, letting himself fly a bit before landing a distance from his starting point. 

  
He marked the sand, “Yea! That’s a good one!” 

“Pika!!” Pikachu gave him a fist bump.

“Me next!” Mallow picked up momentum herself before tossing herself off, landing a few feet behind where Ash had landed,”So close!” she pouted as bounsweet bounced towards her.

“Suiit!” 

Mallow smiled, “Hey Lillie! It’s your turn!”

“M-me?” she seemed to break out of her daydreaming as he realized how high she was. “Jump right now?”

“Don’t worry!” Mallow giggled, “I’ll catch you!” Lillie squeezed her eyes shut and allowed herself to fly off of the swing, and just as promised, right into Mallow’s arms. She laughed a bit as Mallow seamlessly caught her bridal style.

“Nice catch!” a thumbs up from Ash.

Mallow did a spin before setting Lillie down, “Next up a battle of endurance!”

“What do you-” Lillie was interrupted by Mallow running onto the merry go round.

“People and pokemon hop on! I’ll be your conductor on the SS. Dizzy!”

Satoshi laughed as he hopped on, pikachu on his shoulder and Rowlet still tucked into his bag. “Literally none of that made sense but you are valid and I love you.”

Lillie took a cautious seat as Mallow used her full force to push the merry go round, and her full force was a lot! She ran faster than a quick attack, going faster and faster before deeming it time to leap on herself.

It was all good fun until it slowed down, in which everyone was sure they could use a persim berry to chase away the spinny feeling in their heads.

They all took an unceremonious seat onto the mulch as rowlet flew in circles, trying to figure out which way was up.

“Hey! Are you guys okay!?”

Mallow snapped out of her confusion and used Foresight! Sophocles was identified! He was pulling a wagon behind him, it had lemons, some oran berries, and moo moo milk in it. Togedemaru was inside of it, munching on a berry.

Kiawe could be spotted beside him, holding another container of moo moo milk that seemed like it wouldn’t fit in the wagon.

“Yea!” Ash laughed, “We’re all good! Just a bit dizzy! What are you guys up to?”

“We are gettin’ ready for a lemonade stand!” Sophocles gestured to his wagon, “It’s gonna be mixed with Oran berries and set up at the beach!”

An idea sparkled in the kantonian boy’s eyes. “Hey can we help!? I’ve got an awesome idea!”

“Uh sure!” Kiawe called. 

“Alright! I’ll meetcha’ at the beach in fifteen minutes!” Ash picked up his still woozy pikachu, and caught rowlet in his bag. I’m gonna need someone to go back to Kukui’s with me first though.

“I’ll go!” Mallow grinned, bounsweet happily chirping behind her. 

“Perfect thanks!” he turned to the other girl, “Lillie! Go on ahead with Sophocles and Kiawe! We’ll meetcha’ there!”

“Alright!” Lillie called, “Check up on the egg for me!”

“Will do!” 

* * *

Sophocles set up the stand at the beach, using the help of Lillie and Kiawe to freshly squeeze the lemonade.

“Where did Ash go anyway?” Kiawe questioned, blocking out the sun with his hand.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Ash appeared dashing towards the stand with Mallow by his side, both of them holding bags full of berries of all shapes and sizes.

“You guys went to buy all these berries!?” Lillie questioned.

“Of course not!” Mallow chuckled, “The professor had all of these berries in his fridge! 

“We have way too many of them.” Ash shrugged, “This is the perfect way to not only expand the horizons of the lemonade, but also to use the berries before they go bad!”

“Oh! I see!” Lillie grinned, grabbing a pecha berry.

“Awesome idea Ash!” Sophocles grabbed one of the bag from him, “Thanks a lot!”

“No problem!” Ash beamed as he began to start squeezing his own berry concoctions into a container under Mallow’s careful instruction.

“Don’t mix too many, some flavors might cancel out others.” she squeezed two berries together.

“Wait so is seven different berries too much?” Ash gave Mallow a sheepish grin. 

“Which ones!?” She blinked.

“I honestly forget.” he chuckled a bit as Pikachu facepalmed. 

“Oh Ash.” Lillie giggled, “How about you go spread the word?”

“Yea!” Sophocles looked to Mallow, “How about we use bounsweet as a mascot of sorts! She can go around with Ash!”

“Oh great idea!” she patted bounsweet on the head.

  
  
“H-hey!” Kiawe interrupted, “I was gonna advertise!” he pulled out some wooden signs, “I made these and everything!”

“I don’t see why you both can’t.” “Lillie shrugged.

“Let’s have a battle then!” Ash jumped a bit.

“To decide who gets to do it?” Sophocles tilted his head.

Ash chuckled, “Nah, of course not. I mean we have an advertising battle! Whoever brings in the most customers wins!”

A smirk grew on Kiawe’s face, “It’s on!” fire seemed to glow in his eyes.

And so it began with Rotom keeping score.

The sign flipping battle of the century while Bounsweet flew in between them, and well it seemed to work. A lot of people came by to watch the show as well as buy some lovely lemonade.

It even attracted someone else familiar, “Alola!”

“Oh Lana!” Mallow grinned. “Want some lemonade?”

“I would love some!” She got one for her and Popplio, who barked with glee. “I would actually love to help, Popplio and I just finished up fishing for today.”

“That would be awesome! You want to help squeeze?” Sophocles asked.

“Actually, I’d like to do that.” she pointed over to Kiawe and Ash’s intense sign flipping.

“Uh okay sure! Good luck.” Lillie gave a nervous grin.

“It’s on!” Somehow it seemed the fire in her eyes burned brighter than the one in Kiawe’s.

* * *

“We’re back professor!”

“Great! How did the lemonade stand-” the professor stood and stared

“What’s wrong?” the kantonian boy asked.

“Well you are absolutely filthy, what happened!?”

“Kiawe and I went through some extreme measures for advertising, which included kicking up sand and dirt at the beach.”

  
  
“It was an intense battle.” the alolan boy nodded.

“I see… and who won the battle?”

“I did!” Lana giggled as popplio clapped her flippers together in amusement. 

Kukui laughed, somehow that made the most kind of sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LONG CHAPTER! Or longer than usual but still long. Hope you all enjoyed! Prepare for popplio's bubble of happiness to burst next time though! Right back to the angst! Thanks for reading!


	4. Falling Behind and Getting Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Satoshi has fun at the beach until things don’t get so fun anymore.

Satoshi ate his congratulatory dinner with eagerness. Rowlet and pikachu enjoying their meals at the restaurant as well. Taking a swig of his drink, Sato admired the new sparkling Z crystal on his wrist from Hala, or well Tapu Koko. But he’d still earned it.

“You did an amazing job at your grand trial and Kahuna Battle Ash.” The professor ate a forkful of noodles.

“Thanks professor!” Satoshi pet both his pokemon on the head, “It’s all thanks to these guys!” Rowlet let out a shrill ‘Coo!’ and Pikachu snuggled up into his trainer’s hand with a ‘chyaa!’

Kukui smiled at the sight, remembering the days when he and his little Litten went through their own trials. Even sporting the shirtless look as a kid he’d go all out, treating him and his litten to a Big Malasada after a long day of intense battling.

“Hey professor…” Kukui was shaken from his thoughts, his eyes going back up to the kantonese boy, who now had his back turned from the table. His two pokemon were following suit.

“Uh yea ash?”

It sounded as if the boy struggled to withhold laughter as he whipped his head around, his lips pursed outward, carefully balancing the noodles atop his lips. “I mustache you a question.” Rowlet’s noodles fell unceremoniously off of his face, and Pikachu lost it, the singular spaghetti noodle flying off of the electric mouse as he fell backward with giggles.

Satoshi himself ended up not being able to keep a straight face as Kukui snorted his drink out of his nose. The commotion from their laughter gained them quite a few stares and resulted in the both of them deciding it would be best to finish dinner as quickly as possible and have desert elsewhere.

They had settled on a local Malasada food truck that always had freshly made malasadas. The honey smell was next to irresistible. Satoshi ran up to the truck with excitement, “Ah!” his eyes seemed to gleam, “this place always smells awesome!”

He looked up the the clerks who seemed, oddly stiff as per usual, looking down a little bit with the bewear hat overshadowing much of their faces. They always had such an anxious vibe to them.

Kukui joined Sato at the counter, “What do you think we should get Ash?”

Satoshi looked over at the menu, spotting a wobbuffet’s tail peeking out from behind it, “I think we should get the Honey Happiness Malasadas!”

“Amazing idea Satoshi!” Kukui smiled, mussing his hair. “We’ll take five of those please.”

The vendors seemed to look up a bit, a surprised expression on their faces, “S-sure thing!”

“Here ya’ are!” a strong Unovian accent came from a short vendor who quickly fixed their order and slid it to the group. They were thanked, then paid, before the twerp and the professor walked away.

Jessie pursed her lips, lifting her hat. “You heard that, right Kojiro?”

Kojiro stretched, running a hand through his lavender hair, “Yea I think I did, what about it Mushashi?”

Meowth perked up a bit at the names, they hadn’t used them very often since coming to the alolan region. They usually used their code names that they used on team rocket business, ones easier to say across many regions since other team rocket members from other regions would often mispronounce and butcher their names.

Fake nails tapped against the counter. “Not a soul had called the jari boy Satoshi since he was travelling back in Kanto.”

“Well I would assume he goes by that other name because its easier for others to say.” Kojiro shrugged it off.

Musashi pursed her lips, “Right… but there has got to be a reason that only Kukui is using it.”

Kojiro seemed to take an interest in that fact, “You are right...nobody else calls him that, it seems like a more personal thing.”

“Not to mention…” Meowth began, “His guard seems to be down around the professor, and didn’t you see that earlier? He mussed up his hair too!”

Musashi smirked, “Perhaps this goes deeper than we thought, we have never seen his father, though we have seen his mother!” she pointed out.

“That doesn’t mean Kukui is his father then, does it?” Kojiro questioned.

“Who knows?” Pink hair was readjusted in its tie. “But what we do know is that they at the very least have that sort of dynamic. The twerp seems to let his guard down around Kukui at the least, so that may be a good opportunity to try and grab ourselves a superpowered pikachu!” She grinned, clapping her hands together with glee.

“Let’s pursue!” the trio shouted together.

“Wobuffet!”

* * *

Ash was having an AWESOME day. He played all day in the water and sand, he did so many things he hadn’t done since he was ten or eleven! There was a water fight, sand castles, and even playing pretend!

Lana had proclaimed herself the ocean queen with popplio as her princess. Mallow was the queen from the grass kingdom who wanted the ocean as part of her territory too, with bounsweet as her princess.

Ash and Lillie were knights for Mallow, while Kiawe and Sophocles were knights for Lana, along with all of their pokemon too of course (though turtonator decided it was best to stay ashore).

“The ocean is mine!” Lana claimed, splashing her foot into the water.

“No! It belongs to me!” Mallow grinned, “Princess bounsweet deserves a big kingdom to inherit. Knight Ash, Knight Lillie! We have to do something!”

“Right!” Ash grinned, “Pikachu lets charge!”

“Pika!” Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder as they ran forwards, Lillie behind them.

“At your defense Knight Kiawe! Knight Sophocles!”

“Gotcha’.”

“On it!” Sophocles held up togedemaru, “Skid across the water girl!”

“Toge!!” the round pokemon spun around, skipping across the water like a stone.

Kiawe went along with the little electric type, splashing his feet in the water as he aimed a nice splash at Ash.

Ash placed a hand over his chest in an exaggerated way and yelled, “Agh! I’m down!” He fell to his knees, “Pikachu, avenge me!”

“Pikapi.” Pikachu seemed to roll his eyes with a sort of laugh. He jumped towards togedemaru as the began to splash as well.

“Take this!” Lillie jumped up and splashed Kiawe, who laughed and returned the gesture.

All the while Alana and Mallow charged at each other with their Pokémon. The impact of the water was about to occur when. “Lio!!!”

“Suuit!” Happy noises erupted from the berry Pokémon as she found herself inside a bubble that Popplio balanced atop her nose with style.

“Oh, uh.” Mallow tapped her chin.

“Oh my! The princesses!” Lana cried dramatically. “Are in love! Stop the battle!”

Everyone halted the splashing to look towards Lana. “From this point on the kingdoms shall be merged!”

Popplio’s bubble popped, and bounsweet drifted down into the water with laughter and a little plop.

“Alright! Now that the turf war has been resolved, how about a little lunch?” Kukui called out to the kids who all rushed to shore in response.

They all sat on a picnic blanket and enjoyed their meals. Kukui has brought some awesome Mac and cheese that he’d made too much of the night prior for he and Ash.

Pikachu and Ash had matching cheesy faces by the end of the meal. Rowlet avoiding that fate by preferring some simple Pokémon food.

The sun warmed his face and he was surrounded by friends. He was playing in ways he hadn’t since he was a kid. He felt like a younger kid and for once that felt okay. There was no way the day could possibly get any better.

* * *

He was right.

He couldn’t move. Tears streamed down his face. How could this have happened?

“Pikah-“ Satoshi had fallen to his knees, nog even able to catch enough of his breath to finish the word.

They were taking him away. They were finally taking away his Pokémon. Pikachu.

Please.

Not here.

Not now.

He was too weak, he’d let his guard down.

It was all so very bad bad bad bad bad bad.

Tears streamed down his face as he struggled to breathe. No no NO N O.

Then a miracle happened.

A large familiar, pink Pokémon swept in and whisked them all away. All of them but.

“Pikachu!” Satoshi sobbed as the mouse Pokémon ran into his arms. His trainer held him tight, hiccups interrupting his breaths.

“Pikapi.” Pikachu places a paw on his chest as he continued to sob. “Pikachu pika chupi.”

“I’m sorry pikachu it- not okay. Not good bad bad.”

Pikachu looked upwards towards the concerned owl Pokémon, “Pikapi! Pichu chayu! Chu Pikchui!”

Rowlet cawed and flew off as fast as possible. Satoshi lost all ability to think. To move. To do anything but hold pikachu close and cry like the small child he felt like he was.

He hardly registered firm hands on his shoulders. Or a soothing voice trying to speak to him. Nor even when he was picked up and moved. It felt like decades stuck like that.

Until reality finally began to come back to him.

He was warm. Pikachu was still in his arms. And two strong soothing arms were wrapped around him. Hands were rubbing his back and comforting words were being spoken to him.

He looked up to see Kukui and rockruff looking down at him. “Hey Satoshi.” Kukui said a bit quietly.

“Kukui?” Sato laid his head tiredly down on Kukui’s chest. “What happened?” He felt very confused.

“Mm.” A steady hand ran through his messy black hair. “That’s what I would like to know too. Do you remember anything after you left to find some Pokémon?”

Satoshi pet Pikachu on the head. “I was climbing some rocks, then I saw, I saw…” brown eyes filled with tears, “Oh pikachu!” He hugged his Pokémon close to his chest.

“Hey hey,” Kukui soothed, “Pikachu is right here.”

“Pikapi.” A small fuzzy yellow paw reached up and touched Satoshis face.

“Right. Team Rocket was there with this… new Pokémon. It caught me off guard and I. I. I lost.” His voice broke.

“It’s okay to lose sometimes.” Kukui comforted.

“But it wasn’t just that I lost. I’d lost before. And I’d always got Pikachu back but. It was me who got him back. I was weak. Vulnerable. I can never be vulnerable.” Small sobs interrupted him, “I felt young today. I felt like a kid like it was okay to be a little kid but it wasn’t. Its all my fault and Pikachu almost got taken away for it!”

Satoshi held pikachu tight as the electric type gently nuzzled him.

“Sato…” Kukui held him closer. “I noticed you were having a lot of fun today. Playing with everyone else.”

“Shouldn’t have been playin’.”

“Why not? Everyone else was.”

“I need to be big right now. To be strong.” Satoshi choked on his breath. “I feel so very small right now though. It felt good feeling small again and playing with everyone.” Kukui offered his hand and Satoshi took it. “I have to be big cause everyone else everywhere acts big too. I used to be able to be small when I was actually little but now its just. Weird of me. I’m sorry. I need to grow up.” He clenched his eyes shut.

“Hey hey, nothing to apologize for.” Kukui soothed the Kantonese boy. “Why do you always have to be big?”

“Gotta be big cause everyone wants me too. I have so much, responsibilities, 'M too important always. it's always up to me to be the hero. Iris always called me a kid. A little kid like an insult. Was never respected t’all.” He sniffled. “I made sure to grow up before moving onto Kalos. But now I’m just some stupid little kid again! Can’t do nothing right.”

Kukui ran another hand soothingly through his hair. “There’s nothing wrong with acting and playing like a kid you know.” He smiled gently, “You’re only fourteen after all.”

“But I act like I’m nine or ten… It's not always bad but I can’t afford to be such a child. Thought sometimes… I like to go back to how it was… before it all happened.”

Tears wet Kukui's lab coat, he wouldn’t press too hard about whatever I was that happened. “Satoshi, can you look at me for a second?”

Brown eyed gazed up at him. “You remember how you played with everyone today?”

“Mmhm.”

“They were playing because they wanted to play with you. They’re all close to your age and Kiawe is even older than you.”

“So they play even though they’re older. How come?”

“Well,” Kukui tapped his chin. “I think its just the social climate here. Kids around Alola don’t feel as much pressure to feel like they have to grow up.” He exhaled, “You don’t need to feel that pressure either.”

A sniffle cane from Satoshi.

“If you ever want to act or feel something that makes you feel ‘not your age’ that’s just fine. Its okay to feel small sometimes and to act on it. You can play games and laugh and play pretend. Its your life. Have fun Satoshi.”

“But what if….”

“Sometimes bad thing me happen but its not because you are feeling more small than usual. Those things that happen are out of our control. Never blame yourself and how you feel for that. It's okay to be a kid, everyone else does and if you ever need help... don't be afraid to ask. I'll always be there to help.”

Kukui was hugged tight, “Thank you Kukui.”

He placed a hand atop the boy’s head, “Always.”

A calm silence.

“Do you want to read the get well cards from your friends?” The professor asked.

A smile graced Sato’s face, “They wrote me letters?”

“Mmhm.” A warm grin.

“I want to read them.” He pet pikachu on the head once more.

“Alright then!” Kukui pulled out an envelope that seemed overfilled. Inside were many brightly colored cards.

Satoshi took one in his hand and looked inside.

Everything was alright now. And he had people that cared.

At least for now. Things would just maybe be a little more than okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thanks for reading! Also this chapter was where the age regression tag comes in. It’s not physical or anything but more of a mental coping mechanism to help him deal with his trauma. And it’s not the weird kinky shit either don’t even bring that idea in here this is all good platonic shit. Only ships rn are Kukui/Burnet and possibly Mallow/Lillie and none of that’s gonna be explicit. Cause they’re children! And I’m not writing any M rated romance for Kukui and Burnet. 
> 
> Anyhow! Thanks for the read! Let me know what you thought!


	5. Don't Mine at Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody's got some TRAUMA. (but most of this chapter is fun tbh) Lillie and Ash think on and address some traumas but some things are best to not think about.

Professor Kukui was officially the BEST PROFESSOR EVER. Ash shoved another forkful of waffle in his mouth, a bit of syrup dripping down his chin, pikachu sporting a matching look beside him. Rowlet was more into the berry box at the end of the table, where the rest of the toppings were available. 

After the pancake race had been lost, EVERYONE was disappointed, especially Kiawe who couldn’t even finish the second lap of the race. After all it ‘wasn’t his fault his partner pokemon was almost five hundred pounds’. Kukui had gone out and picked out a few waffle makers from the store, and his one from the house and brought them all to school the next day.

“Yes! Waffles fix everything!” Sophocles finished off his stack with some whipped cream, rawst berry syrup, and a cheri berry on top. His pokemon too busy rolling about the classroom to be interested in the food.

Lana took a big bite of her own creation as popplio clapped in her lap, “Ah yes, free serotonin.” 

Mallow laughed beside her, the plate in front of her looking more like a work of art than a meal and bounsweet circling around her. “Mood.” her mouth was full of razz berry.

Kiawe was going all out, piling it up with almost every kind of topping he could find, all the syrups, and a lot of different berries before he sat down, Turtonator greatly enjoying a spicy berry plate left out for him.

Lillie had carefully balanced her egg in her lap. She had a very simple, small plate of just plain waffles, and some oran berries on the side. “Thank you for the surprise breakfast professor!”  
  
Kukui grinned, “It’s nothing at all! I thought that everyone could use a pick-me-up after that race.” he began preparing his own plate.

“I will miss you, promise of free pancakes.” Ash held up a piece of waffle forlornly, before directing it into his mouth. 

Lillie rested her hand on her cheek, lightly picking at her waffles. The egg moved around more and more each day, in fact it was wobbling around in her lap. Lillie dropped her fork onto the table as it began to glow. She picked it up and swiftly ran it over to an empty desk. 

“Lillie?!”

“Is everything okay?”

“What's wrong with the egg?”

Everyone crowded around her, Lillie was tearing up a bit, “I-I don’t know, I don’t think I did anything, wrong. I-”  
  
Kukui kneeled against the desk and smiled, “Lillie, It’s okay!” his tone was gentle, “You did perfectly, the egg is hatching.”

Lillie wiped her eyes a bit, “Snowy’s hatching? I-”

The egg broke apart brilliantly, slightly blinding everyone and dazing rowlet enough to make him confused. A bundle of white floof emerged from the egg, “Vooua?” blue eyes gazed around, locking eyes with Lillie. 

The moment of awe was shattered when Principal Oak dashed in, “My cousin’s egg! Its hatching! Come and see before I cause a typhlosion of excitement!” he placed his own egg at the desk, and it glowed just as bright, but it felt much warmer than the other pokemon’s entrance.

“Vuol!” the brown pokemon hopped out of the egg’s remains, full of energy.

“A vulpix!” Ash immediately recognized and pointed out, “One of my friends had one of you once.” The pokemon bumped up against his hand, “And you are sure a lot friendlier than that one!” he giggled.

“Snowy…” Lillie uttered. Her heart rate sped up as the white pokemon gazed at her, and her alone. 

Until, “And you must be an alolan vulpix!” he ran over to greet the other pokemon, “Hey! I’m Ash! It's nice to meet AUGH-” the kantonian boy nearly turned blue from the cold that the vulpix had trapped him in. That somehow cueing the other vulpix to go, ‘Oh boy time to fry the child’ and spat an ember at him. 

“Ash!? Are you okay?” Lillie bit her lip.

“Y-yea I’ll be okay, just cold, and hot and. Phew.” he rubbed his arms with an awkward smile as pikachu nuzzled his cheek. 

“Snowy?” Mallow questioned, her gaze fixing on Lillie.

“Uh yea, that's what I called the egg, at least-temporarily while I was taking care of it, it just felt right.”

“Rrt! Rrrt! Updating data!” Rotom spun around the group, snapping pictures galore. “Vulpix, and its Kantonian form. Data updated.” Floating over to Kukui he waved his arms about, “I have some blank spaces in my data, who do these pokemon belong to, Zzt?”

“Well that’s a very Goodra question.” Oak picked up the red pokemon, “I’ll take care of this little one. Since I raised the egg, but I’ll leave the ice type for you all to figure out.” the principal took his leave.

“So, uh…” Lillie tapped her fingers together, “Who’s gonna take care of her?”

Mallow crossed her arms with a grin, “I think we all know who’s taking care of Snowy.” she reached into her pocket and handed her an empty pokeball.

Lillie really hated all the eyes on her.

* * *

Everyone ran out of the schoolyard once the bell rang signaling the end of class. Lana ran to the beach, while Sophocles ran to his lab, togedemaru spinning right behind him. Kiawe hopped on his ride charizard, flying right back home to Akala Island.

Ash and Mallow were chatting near the front gate as Lillie approached it, grasping the pokeball in her hand. She couldn’t believe it.

Vulpix CHOSE her. Even after looking like an idiot and being so nervous about the idea of touching her… she’d missed the throw completely. Then the little snowball hopped off the desk and caught herself in it.

Said pokemon was walking right beside her. Careful to not brush her leg with the puffy tail on her bottom. Lillie felt so BAD. This pokemon was so sweet, even after she’d frozen and begun to cry at the prospect of touching her. She told Snowy she was sorry and the pokemon still remained loyally affectionate, as much as she could from a distance that is…

She spoke to her friends once more at the gate, declining her usual car ride at the option offered up by Ash. “Just take a walk with her, I’m sure it will help you bond!”

And so off they went Lillie not giving herself any more excuses, she would be a good trainer to Snowy!

They had about twenty minutes worth of a peaceful afternoon until team rocket decided that they wanted her pokemon…

She only knew one of Snowys moves, if she even had any more than that. And she kept using the same one over and over again. They were cornered, and she only just got her pokemon, she can’t lose her now!

“P-powder snow!”

“That ones getting old.” the pink haired woman laughed, “Mimikyu! Shadow ball!” Lillie watched as the pokemon refused once more. She grabbed her hair in frustration, “OH COME ON! Pretend it's pikachu okay!? PLEASE!?”

“XXkrrrxxxkkkrk?

“You are so much harder to understand than all of my other pokemon…”  
  
The pokemon turned away in objection once more.

“Fine then! If he won’t battle then I will!” The unovan accented Meowth began to approach with claws drawn, “Let’s see how you like my fury swipes!”

Lillie watched helplessly as her pokemon was thrown over the edge of the wall, falling, falling far down. She couldn’t-no. She could. She had to, this was her pokemon, and her responsibility to keep safe! As the vulpix was tossed over the edge, she jumped after it.

Arms outstretched, grabbing onto her pokemon, and holding her close. Lillie inhaled as she braced for impact… Snowy’s fur… smelled just like the egg did… and she was so very soft, and gentle. 

This was the pokemon she’d been caring for during these past weeks, the one she had read stories to, sang lullabies to, held close whenever possible. Snowy. Tears filled up her eyes as she held the pokemon closer. 

“ROWLET! LEAFAGE!” 

“Krrrow!” 

A strong wind broke her fall, she gazed at her pokemon. “A-are you okay Snowy?” Snowy cooed, bumping her fluffy head under her trainer’s hands.

“Lillie are you okay!?” Mallow stopped in front of her, offering a hand to help her up. Lillie stood up by herself. “Wait, you’re holding Snowy!” Mallow pointed out.

“Of course.” Lillie smiled, “I’m her trainer after all.” She pointed up at the wall where team rocket stood, “Give them a powerful powder snow to remember!”  
  


Ash grinned and called out an attack for pikachu to use himself, “Finish it off with a thunderbolt!”

* * *

Lillie sat at the table in Professor Kukui’s kitchen. Her friends were all outside by the beach, doing some sunset training.

“Lillie, are you alright?” he asked her gently.

“I, I guess so.”  
  
“Mmn, earlier while your friends were talking about what happened today. They mentioned that you jumped off a wall, a very tall one.” Lillie’s hands scritched her pokemon.

“It wasn’t like I had many other options, it was… scary and Snowy was… Falling.”

“I see…” Kukui rested a hand on his chin. 

“P-please don’t tell my mother.” she looked down.

“Why not?” Kukui calmly questioned.

“She already babies me enough, I don’t need her deciding I’m not allowed to walk home anymore… I can take care of myself and my pokemon. And that’s what I was doing today, for me, and Snowy.”

Kukui gave her a smile, “Okay Lillie, I won’t tell Lusamine.” the girl relaxed her shoulders that she hadn’t realized were tense. “But, I will have to ask you something.”

“Yes?”

“I know that seemed like your only option, and it probably was, but remember that when you take care of your pokemon, to take care of yourself too. Cause Snowy needs you as much as you need her.” Lillie looked down at her Vulpix that sat in her lap, now pawing at the end of her braid.

“Will do professor.” She nodded firmly.

“Alright then, and remember, you can always come to me if you need help, or just to talk.” Lillie smiled and nodded, and Ash, almost on cue ran through the doorway, the screen door screeching behind him as it slowly closed shut.

“Professor, do we have any popsicles left?”

“I don’t know, did you eat them all last night?” he smirked towards the boy.

“No I didn’t, and I told you, that was only once and it was the combined efforts of pikachu and I. The only thing he likes more than those things is ketchup.”

“WAIT, is that where it keeps going!?” Kukui’s eyes went wide, “I thought I was being hit with psyshocks!”

“Pikaah…” The electric mouse sheepishly waved from Ash’s shoulder as the boy pulled out the box of popsicles.

“Yes!! Knew it!” he turned to Lillie, “Hey do you wanna do some training with us? Or just hang on the beach?” He offered a popsicle.

She smiled and took it, “Yea, I’d like that. Thanks Ash.”

Once it had gotten too dark to see well without turtonator shooting out a move, they all went inside and decided to hang out a little bit before heading home.

“Okay, so what game do we wanna play?” Mallow stretched and plopped down onto the couch.

Lana rocked back and forth on her flip flops, “How about minecraft?”  
  
“Awe hell yea!”

“Yes please!”

“I’m gonna beat the enderdragon way faster than last time, just you watch!”  
  


“Oh! Who wants to start a farm with me?”

“I will!”

“Uh, what’s minecraft?”

All eyes turned to Ash like he’d committed a crime. “How, HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT MINECRAFT IS!?” Sophocles dramatically cried out.

“It's like a massive pop culture thing.” Lillie added.

Ash shrugged, “I dunno, I was never one for video games, I was always too busy journeying, and battling and outdoor games were my hobbies. I mean I played pokemon mystery dungeon when I was younger.”

Kiawe nodded, “My respect for you has been slightly restored.”

“But it doesn’t excuse his minecraft crimes!” Lana announced.”

It was time for minecraft. And thankfully Sophocles is always prepared for video games so there was enough room for everyone to play between him and Lana's switches. Lillie made herself and Snowy matching cheese and cracker sandwiches as Rotom was lecturing Ash on his mining methods. “You know Ash, you shouldn't dig straight down. Zrrt. According to the minecraft wiki it can be very dangerous, you could fall in lava or a-”

As if Rotom willed it into reality, Ash was suddenly falling into a ravine. Then somehow managed to land in a little puddle of water. “Haheheh. Trust the process Rotom.” he smirked as he walked around.

“Hey! Those are diamonds Ash! Grab em!” Mallow pointed out. 

Ash’s eyes sparkled like the precious gem as he quickly began to mine them, until Sophocles cried out, “WAIT NO-” 

Both diamonds were mined. And not in his inventory. “Where did they-”

“You can’t use a stone pickaxe Ash.” Lana explained, helping Mallow build a cottage. Lillie was content with her torchic farm, building them a bigger coop as the army of them grew. 

“Kiawe you knew that! You gave me the pick! And told me to go for it! You let me lose the diamonds.”  
  
“What a shame.” Kiawe said with a hint of a smile, already building a nether portal.

Then, a brilliant idea spawned in Lanas mind, she turned her blue head of hair to the pokedex in the corner, “ROTOM! Play Revenge by Captain Sparkles!”

“I don’t have music player functionality Lana. Zzt.” Rotom quirked to the side.

“Then open a web browser and play the minecraft song!”

“Minecraft songs! Minecraft songs! MINECRAFT SONGS **MINECRAFT SONGS! ** ** _MINECRAFT SONGS!” _ **

Rotom gave in to the chanting children and the memes commenced. They laughed and sang along, munching on more cheese crackers… until a single whine called out from the kitchen.

Ash set down his remote and stepped into the kitchen, “Rockr-ROCKRUFF WHAT HAPPENED!?” Everyone dropped their remotes and surrounded the poor puppy pokemon. He was covered in scratches, bite marks, and even burns.

“Professor Kukui! Hurry! Rockruff needs medical attention!” Kukui rushed upstairs, holding onto a first aid kit. Lillie handed Kukui the materials while Ash comforted rockruff through the pain of cleaning up the wounds.

Once he was all fixed up, everyone decided it was probably best to head home so Kukui could figure out what happened with rockruff.

Lillie held Snowy tight as she left, “Hey Mallow?”

“Yea Lillie?”

The blonde looked down, “Could I wait at your house until my ride picks me up there? I don’t wanna try walking after what happened today…”

“Of course!” Mallow wrapped an arm around her and they began the trek home. Bounsweet flying after them.

Ash waved goodbye at them, looking behind him with concern towards the injured Rockruff. The screen door bounced back and forth as it slowly shut.

* * *

Satoshi ran home with Kukui behind him, holding the still injured rockruff. It had been three days since the puppy pokemon had begun to go missing, and they finally got results from a stakeout.

“That Magmar’s a tough opponent huh.” he commented, turning around walking backwards. Brown eyes trained on rockruff as he wagged his tail, happy to be in Kukui’s arms. “But you sure do love training on clawmark hill.” they stepped onto the porch, the old wooden stairs creaking beneath them.

Rockruff whined as Kukui set him down and picked up the already prepared first aid kit.

“Ya know,” Sato laid his head in his arms at the table, “You wouldn’t have to get fixed up so much if you could use that move I saw you charge up earlier.”

The Rockruff perked up, “Roorf?”

“It was probably rock throw,” Kukui commented, “The most basic of rock type moves.”

Satoshi stood up, “Alright then! Rockruff, how about we do some training together tomorrow!? And you can learn that move you've been working so hard on!” the puppy pokemon barked in agreement, leaping down before kukui could treat his next burn. “Special training it is!”

The next day training began as soon as Satoshi got home, tossing his backpack on the floor- “Satoshi, backpack.” Kukui reminded, making himself a mug of life giving coffee.

“Right! Sorry!” -his backpack on the hook in the loft, before running outside with Rockruff.

Kukui shouldn’t have found himself surprised with how Satoshi trained. It really made perfect sense with the way he’d always described battling. With lots of exclamations and onomatopoeia. 

“Okay Rockruff! Lets get hyped!! Wag your tail, and bounce around, get hyped like boom!” Sato made an example of himself, getting on hands and kneese and ‘wagging his tail’. Pikachu happily joined his trainer in the method.

When Kiawe flew by overhead, he decided to make a stop to see what the hell his friend was doing. Then that lead to his offer to help since turtonator knew fire type moves like magmar did.

Rockruff failed to dodge the fire moves a few times, but after some work with pikachu, he was steadying himself as well as the electric mouse could. Eventually, more friends came along just to watch.

There was running on the beach, getting themselves sandy beyond measure, jumping around, and taking a giant nap under a tree…

Then everyone marveled at how EASILY Ash took the hits of the rock throws Rockruff finally managed to produce. After each hit, “Awesome! Keep it up! Yes!”  
  


Mallow called out, unsure, “Hey Ash, doesn’t that uh, hurt?”

A bright grin as rockruff hit him again, “Nope! Not at all!” a giggle.

Lana pursed her lips, “It totally hurts.”

Finally the sun was setting and everyone was heading home. But Lillie lingered behind.

She grabbed his hand, “Ash, can I talk to you for a second?”

Brown eyes gazed at her, “Yea, sure thing.” he sat down on a nearby rock, bordering the beach, patting beside him for Lillie to sit. “Whats up?”

“I was just thinking, the way that you trained with Rockruff today, you communicated in a way I’d never seen before. At least with anyone else…” she looked down at her vulpix. 

“I heard Kukui say earlier to Rotom that you spoke to Rockruff with your eyes, with your heart…” She looked at Ash, “I want to learn how to do that with Snowy.”

“Well, its easy for me to do that for uh… reasons.” he patted pikachu’s head, “But that doesn’t mean others can't connect that way. You just need a good, and deep understanding with your pokemon. For example, I can always understand everything pikachu says because he’s been by my side for years, and there’s nothing I won’t do for him.”

“Reasons?” Lillie questioned.

Ash chuckled a bit, “I don’t know everything about it but uh, something happened to me a good while ago… and ever since then I basically speak pokemon after only spending a little while with them. Weird stuff, but I suppose I’m thankful for it.” A small smile fell upon his face as he booped pikachu’s nose. The pokemon giggling at the gesture.

“Well I mean, I sort of get what you mean by what you would do for your pokemon. I jumped off a ledge for Snowy… Professor Kukui said it was dangerous but it's what I had to do. That kind of stuff, when your pokemon could, die. It's scary, almost as scary as the prospect of you dying.”

Ash looked down. “Pikapi?” Pikachu placed a paw over his beating heart. 

He looked back to Lillie, “Yea, maybe even scarier.”

“...”

“...”

“I've decided.”

“I’ve decided that I’m gonna grow closer with snowy, and then keep on growing connections with other pokemon, how you do. I’ll work through this, no matter what I will be able to touch pokemon again one day!”

The kantonian boy grinned, “Yea! That’s the spirit! I know you can do it, even if it takes a while you can reach your dream!”

She nodded, “Mmhm! Baby steps! Goodnight Ash!” she waved as she walked to the car waiting on her.

“Night!” he called back, waving as well. Then clutching pikachu tighter as he entered the house to help rockruff prepare a bit more.

Later that night, he returned with a newly caught rockruff, and a lot of intrusive thoughts swirling about in his head.

He let the Pokémon out, placed a faux smile on his face and began to play around. Tossing a ball back and forth as the three Pokémon chased it about in the living room.   
  


It’s surprisingly easy to pretend everything is fine when you fall asleep with a pile of Pokémon on the professors living room floor. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long one! Sorry for the uh. Year long hiatus. Yea I am. Wow Sorry. I'll have more regular updates!


	6. Calling and Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Wild Clemont Appeared! Sato COMPLETELY FALLS APART THIS TIME. Be ready for that. Also papa Kukui is STRONG HERE.

Kukui tapped his fingers on the table as he stared at the latest round of notes from the lab. It was surprisingly nice to read to the background of Rotom yelling at the Tv, and the yell of “Rowlet! Leafage!” from outside.

He heard a muffled zap outside and a screech from rowlet. “Pikachu! I told you that you can’t wake rowlet like you wake me.”

“Pikahh…” 

The professor glanced towards the pokemon door to see a very fried rowlet waddle in, all puffy and huffy. He flapped his wings around in an irritated way as he attempted to groom himself. Glad for the excuse to not do what he was doing, Kukui stood up and stretched.

He snatched up the pokemon and grabbed a brush from the grooming bin and began to work on the puffed up feathers. “Goodness, pikachu sure did a number on you huh?”

“Krrooh.” Rowlet puffed, settling comfortably into the familiar lap of the professor. He gazed up at Rotom’s 5th rewatch of the latest ‘Alolan Detective Laki’ episode.

“Yes! Brrt!” Rotom yelled, turning up his volume excitedly quoting the episode word for word, “And so the culprit is- AAEEEII!? ASH!! HURRY!” The screen had turned blue, with a phone ringing icon.

Kukui chuckled, “Rotom, its just a video call.” 

The pokedex crossed his arms, “Yes! But Ash and I agreed to schedule video call times so I would have the television to watch Laki! If ash needs to talk to someone, they should have called him on the phone.” Rotom flashed an upset emoji on his screen. “If hes talking with the tv, where do I watch Laki?”  
  
The alolan man smirked, “Maybe his phone?”

Rotom’s emoji turned angry, “How dare you!? Watching on such a small screen is a disgrace to Laki! Only the best for him!” 

Kukui stood and looked out the window, “Satoshi! You have a video call!”

The Kantonese boy was COATED IN DIRT, he seemed to be helping pikachu and rockruff dig an impressive looking hole in the ground. “Really? Now?” He seemed confused.

“Yea-also what are you digging?! A well?”

“I dunno why, but rockruff wanted to.”

“Chuchupi!” Pikachu cheered, waving to the professor.

Sato stood up, dusting himself off, “Pikachu, you help rockruff fill in the hole, I’ll be back out soon!”

“Pika!”

“Aroof!”

He ran inside, shaking the dirt out of his hair as he slid to a stop in the living room. “Hm, no caller ID?” A bit puzzled he looked to the professor who only shrugged.

“It is to your number.” he shrugged.

Satoshi sat down in front of the screen and answered the call.

A cheerful, and excitable green and brown pokemon appeared on the other side, “PIN!!! CHESPIN!”

Satoshi BEAMED. “CHESPIN! HEY!”

“Pin pin!!”

Suddenly a door slammed open, knocking down something out of shot, a VERY nervous voice called over to the pokemon, “CHESPIN! What are you doing?! Who even taught you to use that?! Was it bunnelbly?”

“Ches!!!” 

The boy walked into frame, sporting his signature blue and yellow jumpsuit. He picked up the pokemon, “What am I gonna do with you?”

“Don’t worry, I don’t mind!” Ash grinned and waved. “Its always great to see your face again!”

Clemonts face went BEET RED. “ASH! H-hi I erm, Chespin, why did you call him?”

“I think he did you a _ FAVOR _Clemont!” A young blonde hopped into frame, “You did say that you wanted to talk to him but didn't know how to write that letter-” she popped her head into view.

“BONNIE STOP!” Clem stepped in front of her. “I-erm.”

“So you wanted to talk to me?” Ash questioned.

“Y-yeahhh but uuhm, Its nothing really, I guess I just missed you, ya know? We haven’t talked since months ago!”

“Yeahe… right. Sorry Clem.”

Kukui perked up upon laying eyes on the boy as he cleaned up his work. “Satoshi, who’s this?”

The black haired boy looked behind him, “Professor! This is my friend Clemont! He’s a gym leader in the Kalos region! One of my closest friends!”

Bonnie had found her way back in front of her brother. “Who’s Satoshi?”

Clemont patted her head, “Remember Bonnie? That’s his real name, he just uses Ash on journeys.”

“Oh! Right!” Bonnie jokingly bonked herself on the head.

Her brother laughed, “Im actually surprised you forgot after-”

Bonnie dropped her smile upon realizing what he was talking about, “No! Don’t bring it up! You evil big brother!”

“When Serena first met us, and called him Satoshi, you were all-”

“DON’T SAY IT! NO!” Bonnie pleaded.

He made his voice higher, grabbing a bit of his hair to the side to mimick her ponytail, “‘Oh! This must BE _ EMBERRASSING _ FOR YOU! His name’s actually Ash!’”

“Dedenne! NUZZLE!”

Clemont took the shock in stride, “HAH! Jokes on you! I’m almost as desensitized to electric moves as Ash at this point!” 

Kukui stuck his head into the conversation on Ash’s side. “Wait, I know you! You’re that young man who came into Sycamore’s lab with Blaziken Mask during the professors conference!”

Clemont adjusted his glasses, about to speak but Bonnie beat him to it, “OH! You’re the shirtless professor!”

Kukui choked on a laugh, while Clemont stumbled over an apology, “I AM SO. SORRY SHE HAS ZERO FILTER-”

“No worries! I have kind of created that brand for myself.” The professor walked into the next room over and placed the dishes in the sink. 

“So,” Clemont began, “You must be in Alola now?”  
  
“Yep!” Ash affirmed, “He’s my host family! Uh sort of… yea! A host family can totally be one guy, a rockruff, and a future pokemon master!” Clemont smiled with a chuckle, “I’m staying with him while I attend the pokemon school here!”

“Oh wow.” Clemont blinked, “I never took you for the school type, the only kind of learning you ever seemed to enjoy was non systematic, without patterns, you are self taught… that is unless I’m showing off an invention-”  
  
“Hey! Science is amazing and COOL.” Ash pointed out, “And this isn’t a normal school! I’ve learned so much, made so many friends, and I am studying Z moves!” he held up his Z ring, with electrium Z placed in it.

A big smile appeared on the inventor’s face, “I HAVE HEARD OF THOSE! But I have never gotten much of a chance to study them! They sound absolutely amazing!” he giggled with glee, “Its such a concept that striking a pose can power up a pokemon!”

“Well, Its more than just that.” Kukui smiled as the kid began to talk about all he’d learned.

The kid had really learned a lot since he’d come here, and he was really showing it, and excited enough about it that he was sharing it. From how Hanako described his prior school career, it was apparently. Extremely unimpressive. He would be late every day, chasing after pokemon before class, and not coming back in after recess either.

Yet. Satoshi was always obsessed with pokemon, always being attentive at pokemon camp, playing pokemon shitori with his friend Shigeru. Always beating him apparently.

Satoshi stayed on the call till Clemont declared it was Bonnie’s bedtime, and therefore time to head home. They both left the call with promises to talk real soon.

Kukui noted the bubbly mood the boy had beren trapped in, humming to himself as he gave his pokemon a quick grooming before bed. Kukui walked by, mussing with the kid’s hair on his way by him, “Goodnight Satoshi.”

He say the boy close his eyes, content for a moment before opening them and beaming, “Night professor!”

* * *

Oh.

Oh ARCEUS.

SHIT.

The battle between Ash and Tapu Koko was mesmerizing, amazing how willing the Tapu was to battle him of all people. 

Something most of the student body had gathered around to watch…

And then. Pikachu went flying over the cliff, it was definitely a drop of over three hundred feet.

And SATOSHI JUMPED AFTER HIS PARTNER. Kukui ran onto the battlefield, reaching the broken fence and looking down, feeling quite faint. “SATOSHI!” He cried with worry, looking downwards. He could see the figures of the guardian and his by down far below.

Immediately upon seeing that down below, he did something that he would never have dne otherwise. “BRAVIARY!” he called his flying pokemon out. The students gasped behind at the fact that he had a pokemon partner. “I need you to fly me down!” he held out his wrist, and Braviary took it in understanding, gliding him down the cliffs, talons sharp on his arm. 

They were the first to reach the bottom, where Tapu koko was holding Satoshi, who was grasping onto pikachu impossibly tight. 

They were mere inches from hitting the ground.

Kukui tried to stand but fell to a knee, his legs were shaky from the fear he’d been overwhelmed with.

He reached to the Tapu who hovered a bit further upwards, grasping the boy tighter in their grasp. Satoshi’s eyes were empty, not even looking at his pokemon. Glassy. His chest was moving erratically with terrified gasps. 

“Koko.” he gazed into their eyes. “PUT. HIM. DOWN.”

The guardian stared for a few moments, before gently placing him down in front of Kukui, the professor quick to gather the kid in his arms, pikachu was shaken as well, but still aware of his surroundings, huddling up on Kukui’s shulder and pressing his face into his neck. 

The yellow mouse whined, “Pikahpi…”

Kukui ended up running home with him in his arms, rockruff and rowlet left behind for the moment.

He’d almost tripped going up the stairs of his porch, shoving the door open and immediately placing him on the couch. Times like this he thanked his training with incineroar…

Satoshi had since closed his eyes, his sleep looking eventful and stressful based off his expressions. Kukui leaned down beside him and placed his hand on his head once more. “Keiki…”

* * *

_ He was so, horrible. Horrible at everything. _

_ Pikachu was FALLING. _

_Pikachu COULD HAVE _ ** _DIED._ **

** _THAT WAS WHAT WAS IMPORTANT._ **

_ His legs moved without hesitation, he HAD TO SAVE HIS POKEMON. _

_ Death was almost as scary as that moment. _

_ Almost... _

_ Satoshi supposed he should be afraid of heights at this point. _

_ After that fall from Lumiose Tower, he was surprised Clemont remained his friend after that. _

_ “Ash? That was… I mean. Wow.” He had sat next to him, awkwardly cleaning his glasses. _

_ “Sorry if I scared you, It was just… pikachu.” he gazed at his partner, petting his fuzzy head. He was falling, and then.” tears began welling up in his eyes, but he willed them back. _

_ No. _

_ No. No. No. _

_ He wasn’t a kid anymore, he wouldn’t let Iris’ words be true. _

_ Ash forced out a laugh, “We had to help, its just what we do, ya know?” he gave Clemont a smile. _

_ “Are you sure you’re okay? I just-” _

_ “Really, I am! How’s Bonnie doing?” he scooted closer. _

_ “Well,” Clemont scratched the back of his head, “A little shaken up… but she’ll probably do better after seeing you up and about tomorrow morning.” _

_ “Don't worry.” Ash slipped his hand into Clemont’s, “Im not going anywhere.” his faux smile worked well, Clemonts face reddening a bit as he nodded. _

* * *

Satoshi awoke feeling off, and wrong, and… Completely unfocused. He couldn’t comprehend much, but what he could comprehend was that pikachu wasn’t there. His scratchy voiced called out, “P-pih,” a cough, “kachu?! PIKACHU!?” 

“PIKAPI!” the electric mouse skidded around the kitchen counter and leaped over to him, offering a non electrical nuzzle. Once curled up with his trainer he looked over towards the kitchen again, where Kukui was standing with some dishes. “Chuchupi!”

“Satoshi?”

His brown eyes, still glassy but with a bit more clarity gazed at him. 

“Are you… okay?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Satoshi?”

The boy turned away, holding onto pikachu, shaking his head sharply, “Mmn-nnm.”  
  
“How can I help?” he asked gently.

Sato only turned over, face down on the pillow.

“...”

“...”

“Do you, want me to help?”

He slowly turned over, looking still towards pikachu, finally speaking, “I dunno.”

“Can I try to help?” he inched closer.

A deep breath. “Okay.”

Kukui gave him a small smile, “Can I touch you?”

Satoshi nodded, sitting up and lifting up his head a bit in an expectant way. Kukui knew exactly what he wanted, and it made sense too he supposed. He placed his hand atop the boys head and gently ruffled the hair affectionately. Satoshi’s body began to visibly relax at the action.

Sato moved a bit over to the side, and Kukui took it as permission to sit beside him. Sato slowly moved over to sit in his lap, pikachu walking back around to the other side to offer his boy nuzzles.

“Satoshi, can you tell me why you jumped?”

“Mnno.”  
  


Patience. Kukui reminded himself, “Do you want me to call your mama?”

The kid looked him in the eyes, and shook his head back and forth, “Mmnnnmm no no no… no.” he pulled pikachu closer to him, who in return offered little licks to his face. “She got scared nuff’ in Kalos.”

Kukui pursed his lips, he’d have to ask about that later...“Okay, I won’t call your mama.”

“Promise?” he glanced up.

“I won’t do anything unless you give me your permission to Sato.” he offered another grounding hand to the boys head. He nodded, happy with the answer.

Sato was very simple and quiet in his answers. Odd for him. Kukui recalled a similar situation, an incident that had also involved pikachu…

“Satoshi, can you tell me, how old you feel?”

The boy had shifted in his lap, now with his arms wrapped around Kukui. “Dunno, I feel small, maybe… nine. Ten? Miss being ten…”

“Kukui smiled, “You can be ten if you want to? Or feel like it, I’m not gonna stop you.” Sato hugged him, his breathing slowing even more. Kukui ran another hand through his hair as he hummed happily. 

“Thanks papa.” Sato uttered, hugging him tighter.

Kukui faltered for a moment, surprised but still able to offer a response, “Of course Keiki.” Pikachu squeezed himself right into the snuggle pile. “Is there something you wanna do?” he asked.

“I wanna, play… yea, I wanna play with pokemon.” 

“Well, lucky for you your friends stopped by with your other pokemon.” Satoshi popped his head up and looked around to the corner of the room, where rowlet sat snoozing beside rockruff. “And-” Sato looked up at him, right as his stomach let out a large growl.

Kukui laughed and patted his head, getting Sato to giggle, “Mallow brought over a classic alolan casserole.”

“Perfect.” he closed his eyes, almost tasting it already.

* * *

Kukui smiled at the memory of Sato kicking a ball outside with his pokemon, calling out the rules, breaking them himself, and getting dogpiled by them all. Said boy was now in bed, EARLY of all things. Earlier than usual really, but it had been a very long day. He could hear rowlet’s snores over the sink running.

As Kukui gathered up the dishes, he thought about what the kid had said earlier, about Kalos. Something similar had probably occurred… and Kukui did know one of his contacts from Kalos after all…

It was around ten pm when he rang Professor Sycamore on the phone, then immediately asked about the Lumiose city gym leader’s contact info. When asked why, he simply said, “I just need to fact check something.”

Clemont answered the phone, apparently not planning on sleeping for a couple more hours. And Kukui didn’t beat around the bush, “Clemont, something happened today.”

“What kind of something? Is Ash hurt? Can I talk to him?” Clemont’s voice shook.

“He will be alright, he isn’t physically injured… but I need to ask you if anything like this has happened before.”

“Mhm.”

Kukui swallowed, “Today pikachu fell off of a cliff, a very tall one, and he dived right after him, no hesitation, and something caught him, but he was seconds away from… what could have been. Something bad.”

Clemont swallowed, his breath shaky. “Professor, I am going to send you a link to a video, it. I can’t properly put it into words, you just have to watch it. Okay?”

“Alright… thank you Clemont, sorry to bother you.”

“Not a bother at all, goodnight Professor Kukui.” Kukui pressed the end call button, and he was messaged a link around two minutes later. The caption under the video…

“Crazy kid takes a leap off of Lumiose Tower”  
  
And he clicked on it. And there Satoshi was… again. Jumping after his pikachu.

Kukui couldn’t stop watching, the horror that built up inside…

He ended up covering his face at the desk, glasses discarded to the right of him, computer light making his eyes ache. He would have to discuss this with Satoshi...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PHEW! That was a doozy, and angsty one... but its okay theres a fun chapter next time, mostly, we need to have him TALK TO PEOPLE. (Also I posted at 3 am ill prob edit it tomorrow if I catch any mistakes then)


End file.
